


Scoundrel Shenanigans

by TK_DuVeraun



Series: Legacies (SW:TOR) [1]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/M, Original Character(s), Original Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-26 08:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3843721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TK_DuVeraun/pseuds/TK_DuVeraun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in the universe and time of the game. Inspired by game plots and characters, but fresh and new. </p><p>-</p><p>Getting business done in Republic space isn't easy when you're Sith; conveniently, Danielle's alias as Cap'n Dani the Spacer gets her through most ports. Her work is shaken up when the company she contracts with sends one of their own to help. At least the one-eyed Sebastian is good-looking. A good shot, is what she meant. A good shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Scoundrel Shenanigans

"...Who are you?" Danielle glares at the red-haired man leaning against the huge durasteel cargo container she's supposed to be picking up. Her leatheris jacket creaks as she puts her hands on her hips to put extra emphasis on her displeasure without using the Force. She tries to ignore the fact that he has 30 centimeters in height on her.

The man moves away from the crate and bows with an extravagant flourish more suited to a man in formal robes than to his cut-off vest and cheap trousers. He meets her dark eyes with one of clear blue and a form-fitting eyepatch. "Cap'n Dani, I'm Sebastian from Klavers Kourriers." He holds out an ID chip and a datapad.

Danielle takes them from his fingerless gloves and subtly reaches out to the man with her Force, taking his measure, memorizing his signature. Bland, strong, boring... She slips the ID chip into her scanner without sparing a glance at the screen. "...This is all well and good, but what are you doing here, with _my_ cargo?"

Sebastian reaches out to put his hand under her chin, but Danielle takes half a step to the side and slips her booted foot into position to trip him. To her displeasure, he stays on his feet and gives her a Cheshire grin before saying, "K's doesn't normally take on contractors, but apparently the client insisted that you captain." He winks his single blue eye at her and with the other covered he just looks more the fool. "I can see why."

Danielle doesn’t take the bait and instead pursues the data from the ID chip. It confirms what he’s said and when paired with the datapad, she can’t think of a good argument to get rid of him. "Darth Vallen is protective of his goods. Especially in Republic space."

Sebastian touches the bottom of his eyepatch and visibly scans the cargo bay. Work crews in reflective vests are moving wooden crates on the far side, but there isn’t anyone in human hearing range. "Best not say his name too loudly. This may still be Hutt space but this hanger is all Rep departures."

"You never answered my question." Danielle pokes his chest, using the motion to hide that she's feeling the Force in him again. She makes a show of wiping her finger off on her expensive brown trousers.

"You may be the captain, but this is still K's job. They won't sign off without me here." He touches his eyepatch again and then folds his hands behind his head, leaning back against the durasteel again. "Best just accept it, Beautiful."

Danielle frowns, part of her wishing she had her mask to hide the expression. She wants to push this arrogant spacer out of her face, but she has a part to play if she wants to move her animals through Republic space. Her hand clenches hard enough around his datapad to crack the screen before she throws it and his ID chip at his chest.

He scrambles to catch them and, much to Danielle’s disappointment, does, just centimeters before they hit the cold floor.

"...My ship, my rules, cabin boy. And the first one?" She pulls out her blaster out of her hip holster and points it at his face for a moment before re-aiming it between his legs and releasing the safety. "You stop calling me names."

 

* * *

 

Blaster first, Sebastian peeks around a stack of half-empty durasteel crates to check on their attackers’ position. A flurry of red bolts is his reward, so he ducks back behind the crate with Danielle. He keeps his eye and blaster  forward, scanning for a shot. Despite the tension, his tone is conversational, "So, is what's in these crates actually worth this much effort?"

"It's worth more than your pathetic hide." Hers is sharp and terse.

He just laughs. "Make sure you use me as a shield then, my tiny Captain."

Forgoing the danger in favor of her irritation, she slaps the back of his head. "I'm not your anything."

One of the attackers comes into few and Sebastian fires six shots and there's a skittering sound when the man drops his blaster and then a thump as his body hits the ground.

Danielle feels the Force leave the man's body, even from this distance. _If this idiot wasn't here, those last three would fall before I had time to blink._

Even though Sebastian doesn’t have the Force to boost his confidence in their survival, he turns his back on their enemies and winks. "Oh, but you want to be."

"In your dreams, Spacer."

His, “Yes, there, too” is nearly drowned out by the sound of his blaster as he fires a round of green bolts at the man that tried to rush them.

_Good instincts, at least,_ Danielle thinks before Sebastian holds his red hot blaster in front of her face. For an instant, she thinks he expects her to start firing it, but then she realizes that red hot is not a good state for for a blaster and she trades it for the rifle he’d handed her earlier.

He anchors his shoulder against the empty crate and takes aim at the gangster he can see. The man goes down with a single blue shot. "This is a nice piece of equipment."

“You’re the one who gave it to me,” She says, but he’s clearly not listening as he fires a charged blast through an empty crate on the other side of the ‘customs facility’ they had been ambushed in. Danielle feels outward with the Force and finds no other signatures, but doesn’t mention it when Sebastian motions her still and carefully activates his stealth generator before stepping out of cover.

Danielle can’t see anything except flashes from a vibroknife as Sebastian slits their throats with cold efficiency. She feels a grudging appreciation for his professionalism. She can feel him moving around in the Force, but can’t see him and clenches her right hand into a fist to hold back the unease.

In a blink, he reappears, one hand straightening his eyepatch and the other sheathing his knife. “It’s clear, Dani.” His tone is flat and Danielle can see the muscles in his jaw working.

She stands and brushes stray black hairs out of her face back towards her pony tail. With deliberate movements, she dusts off her thigh-high black boots and ignores the stinging nail marks in her bare palm. “...I can see that.”

He shakes his head, red head sticking to his sweaty forehead. “So much for a routine customs inspection.” He holds out his gloved hand for hers.

She ignores the hand, though she squeezes his arm as she walks past him back to her ship. “Let’s make sure the cargo is intact and get out of here.”

 

* * *

 

"K definitely keeps his safe houses stocked." Sebastian holds up a bottle of Corellian brandy to the light before pouring a perfect serving into two crystal glasses.

"Getting drunk is against my rules." Despite the words, Danielle takes the glass and settles back into the overstuffed couch. She runs a hand idly across the upholstery, appreciating the quality.

"One drink won't get you drunk. Well, it won't get me drunk. You're so small, it might only take one." He laughs when she slaps his shoulder and then has the nerve to sit inside her personal space on the couch. She only just moves her hand in time.

He holds his drink with his left hand and puts his right arm around her shoulders without invitation. "I think a solid job done deserves a drink between friends."

She knocks his arm with her shoulder, but makes no real attempt to move him. "We're associates, not friends." Nevertheless, she takes a sip holding the sharp liquid in her mouth for a moment before swallowing.

"No no, the job is done. We're friends now. Unless..."

She bites back a sigh. "Dare I ask?"

Sebastian puts his hand under her chin, like he tried when they first met, only this time, she allows it. She hopes her tight expression makes it clear that she can change her mind at any moment.

"Dare you?" He leans over and kisses her.

Danielle doesn’t respond and leans back as soon as Sebastian breaks contact. She turns her head and finishes her drink in a single, undignified gulp. She sets down the glass and stares into Sebastian’s good eye. "Just _what_ do you think you're doing?"

He chuckles low in his chest, traces one finger down her cheek with the lightest of touches. "Whatever you'll let me get away with, my tiny captain."

"...Why do I have a feeling this is going to be way too much?"

"Because you want me as much as I want you." He kisses her again, hard this time; he puts an arm around her, pulls her tight against his chest. Against her lips, he murmurs. "Well, maybe not that much."


	2. Pay for Information

_...no records before the age of 20 when he began commission work for K Kouriers; claims to have lived on Uphrades..._

_...cybernetic right eye. Details on the cybernetics unavailable as he has received unregistered upgrades. Investigation pending..._

Danielle shakes the thought from her head and clenches her jaw underneath her mask. She needs to focus on resisting Ilum's harsh cold and leaving no trace of her passage. The biting wind ruffles the feathers adorning her Sith mask, though the sight is invisible under her cloaking of Force. The clicking from her clawed gloves is lost to the screaming wind as she clenches her hand near the hilt of her double-bladed lightsaber. The open conflict over the Jedi’s crystal mines should be enough to clear the image of that stupid, incorrigible, red-haired, sexy-

She snaps the hilt off her belt and spins it in her hand without igniting the blade. As Darth Vallen, she had foolishly requested that Klaver’s send Sebastian for her last job. She thought she needed proof that sleeping with him was a one-time, cover-establishing move.

Instead, Danielle ended the job in bed with him again.

Her grips tightens on the hilt of her lightsaber and she walks with the Force to keep the snow from revealing her path up the hill overlooking one of Ilum’s shallow crevasses. A robed figure shelters under the sharp, transparent overhang of ice, so Danielle focuses on redirecting her Force to her senses.

The robe figure speaks into a holocomm that Danielle can just barely make out. “Get your men south into position Aurek. There’s nothing in this quadrant.”

_Male, humanoid._ Danielle files the information away.

The holoimage distorts, possibly bowing. Danielle steps closer, boots sinking into the snow as her attention is on eavesdropping. “As you say, Master Jones.”

_Jedi._ Danielle misses the call ending as she carefully sends a tendril of Force to take the Jedi’s measure. Nothing troublesome appears immediately, so she dashes towards him under her cloaking of Force and ignites her saber at the last moment to strike him down.

The Jedi Jones spins just in time and blocks one of her orange blades with his bright green, but it’s just enough to keep him from being sliced in two and he falls backwards into the snow. Danielle advances, but he’s already rolled back onto his feet and now he has a second green lightsaber ignited in defence.

The glow from their sabers reflects off of the churned up snow and lights his face. _Mostly human, dark-skinned, perhaps 30 years old._

She lunges forward, spinning her double-bladed saber up and under his guard. He jumps back through a snow drift, still locked into defence. _If he knows only the standard dual-wielding techniques, this will be an easy fight. ...But he is possibly a Master…_

As she thinks it, he retaliates by slashing his crossed sabers at her; it sends a wave of Force at Danielle and she’s knocked back towards the icy wall of the crevasse. She strikes forward again, one orange blade slicing easily through the frozen overhang. He parries with his left and counters with his right.

Hand over hand, Danielle spins her saber as she advances. She gets through his guard and makes the slightest contact with his shoulder before the Jedi vanishes from sight and Force sense. She braces herself for an attack, but it doesn’t come. On the far side of the crevasse, she sees the Jedi escaping and readies herself to pursue.

With a crash, the icy overhang smashes into the snow before her and Danielle grows under her mask. Looking up, the clean lightsaber cuts in the ice are clear. _Yes, this Master Jones is a worthy opponent. I will find him again._

She deactivates her lightsaber and pulls the Force around her like a physical cloak to both hide her from sight and shield her from the unremitting wind.

Yes, this Jedi may be enough to make up for that Spacer.

* * *

 

“My lord, I did everything I could, but the veractyls just-” The petite, black-robed apprentice cuts herself off and falls to her knees. “It will never happen again, my lord.”

“...” Danielle pays no mind to her grovelling apprentice and merely continues staring out from her reserved suite over the Nar Shadaa promenade. The garish lights are somewhat muted by her mask. She watches the milling crowds of people preparing for or already languishing in the decadent debauchery the Hutts are famous for.

She finds it a welcome distraction to stewing on why Lord Plokk hasn’t sent word on her astrogation computer. _I go through the effort of confirming rumors of rare beasts in the mid rim and some pathetic half-wit of a lord loses my astrogation computer..._

“Please, my lord. Give me another chance. I can’t go back to Korriban. I can’t go-”

“...You are Sith. Such simpering is beneath you.” She doesn’t avert her gaze from the crowds below.

“Yes, My Lord Vallen. Of course, my lord. Thank you, my lord.”

Danielle waves her hand to dismiss the girl when someone catches her eye down below. She leans towards the window and gestures for her apprentice to come to her side. “Do you see that Jedi, Rizana? He is Master Jones. I want to know everything that he is. Now go and do not disappoint me again.”

The girl sprints from the room to do her bidding, but Danielle doesn’t look away from the Jedi she faced on Ilum. She has no reason to believe that this black-haired, robed Jedi is Master Jones. No reason other than the Force tell her it’s true.

And she trusts in the Force more than anything else.

The door opening again breaks her reverie. “...Were my instructions too difficult, Rizana?”

“I should think not. You coddle your apprentice.” The voice that answers is male and distorted. Danielle spins around and sees a tall, robed Sith standing just inside her private suite.

“...And you are?” Even though her body is on high alert, she forces her voice to be casual. The intruder’s black and green robes are no more or less ornate than she would expect from a Sith and while the contours of his mask may be unique, they are unfamiliar to her. _Male, approximately two meters tall, humanoid, arrogant._

His robes fan out as he bows with a flourish. “Lord Aucht, at your service, my lord.” He says the name low in his throat and heavily accented, though his Imperial Basic is otherwise flawless.

“...I am in need of no services at present, Lordling.”

“Perhaps not personally, but my understanding is that you run a business of handling… creatures. With recent interest in the mid-rim.”

Danielle doesn’t miss the emphasis on the last. This Lord Aucht is making an obvious ploy: pretending to know more about her and her business than he should. Between Sebastian and this Master Jones, she has more than enough mysterious men in her life.

With measured grace, she stands and stalks past him towards the door. “My business has no need of your patronage at present, either. Do not expect things to go well when you break into another’s office. It is simply not professional.” She pulls a cloak of Force over her to keep the Sith from responding and then begins making her way to her ship.

She has a computer to find and a different lord to punish.

 

* * *

 

"By the stars- Sebastian. You-" Danielle sputters, at a loss for words for the Spacer stinking up her couch. She brings a hand up to rub her mask, but when she remembers it’s not there, she turns the motion into running her hand over her hair and ponytail.

Sebastian is sprawled across the couch on her ship, limbs akimbo and one hand keeping his eyepatch straight. He grabs her wrist and pulls her into his lap. Without accounting for her mastery of the Force, he’s stronger than her, so she tells herself she has no choice other than to go along with the motion. He nuzzles right behind her ear. "Yes, me, Tiny Captain." He tries to kiss her neck, but just ends up slobbering on her.

She pushes his face away and wipes her neck with the sleeve of her jacket. Then, she smacks his hands off her hips, hard. "You're drunk. On my ship."

He is undeterred and keeps attempting to nuzzle her and slip his hands under her shirt. "I was drunk in a cantina, but then you came and dragged me away."

"For. A. Job." She punctuates each word with a smack and climbs out of his lap. She stands in front of the couch, out of arm's reach, and puts her hands on her hips. "Don't you check your holocomm? I left you at least three messages."

"I thought you were going to yell at me about nether rot some more or something." He closes his eye and rubs his forehead, adjusting his eye patch mid-motion. "You can't just have sex with a guy, freak out and then leave." He opens his eye halfway and catches her blushing. Internally, she again curses her lack of mask when dealing with him.  "I'm a little insulted, you know, Dani. As if I'd infect someone as beautiful as you."

She opens her mouth, ready to unleash a biting response, but his eye falls closed and he starts snoring. Danielle presses her lips together in a tight line and considers throwing him out of the airlock and sending Klaver a nice apology fruit basket. In the end, she uses the Force to summon a blanket from the spare bunk and throws it over him haphazardly before heading into the cockpit to set their course.

 

 


	3. The Oldest Profession

Danielle is a great fan of silence. It is perfect for stalking, thinking and relaxing. Thus, she has no idea why she feels the need to break the comfortable silence with Sebastian. "So you infect people less beautiful than me?"

Sebastian turns away from the grandiose doors to Lord Plokk’s manor house and raises his left eyebrow at her. "Not a one; I'm clean now and always have been."

"...I find that hard to believe."  Danielle turns the last word into a scoff. She believes him, but she needs some way to vent her displeasure that he had the nerve to wake up completely sober and without a hangover.

A highly polished protocol droid opens the large, carved doors and ushers them into the marble foyer. Despite the pristine and shining appearance of the manor, Danielle can feel the Sith corruption seeping through the walls. A flash in the corner of her eye makes her snap her head to the side where a dark sigil glows a sickly purple. It pulses once before disappearing as if it had never been there.

She balls her hands into fists as they continue to wait and after a time, Sebastian touches her arm, looking down at her with his face twisted in concern. She shakes her head ‘no’ and brushes his hand off. Deeper within the manor, a dark, corrupted power starts moving ever so slowly towards them. Instinctively, Danielle widens her stance and shifts her weight into a ready position. _For being such a weakling, Plokk certainly carries the sickness of the Dark Council._

When he finally appears Danielle resists the urge to hide herself in the Force. Barely.

He is a thin, reedy man, with black hair falling in greasy hunks around his head. His skin would be deathly pale if he weren’t covered in the spider web of black-purple Sith corruption. Though for all his depravity, Lord Plokk still knows fear and knows to fear “Darth Vallen” specifically. Danielle sees his hands shake and the way his eyes dart about the foyer, looking for the Darth in the flesh. _If only he knew..._

She glances at Sebastian to measure his reaction. His usually warm expression is carefully neutral, but he seems otherwise unbothered. _What can he see of this Lord with his cybernetic eye..?_

"You would be D-Darth Vallen’s people, then?" His trembling voice is thin and weak. Danielle is tempted to strike him dead where he stands and remove his corruption from the galaxy, but it would both break her cover and leave her without her astrogation computer.

Her voice is as sharp as the lightsaber blade she doesn’t use on him. "Lord Plokk, if there is a problem with the astrogation computer and it's prompt delivery to Darth Vallen, you can trust that Darth Vallen won't wait for his own convenience to see you punished."

Her last word hangs ominously in the air and Sebastian shifts into an offensive stance and puts his hand on the blaster at his hip without her prompting. _Useful._

Plokk crumples to the floor. Pathetic and on his knees in front of two “Force blinds.” "It was stolen. I had no idea; there was nothing I could do!" His voice is shrill, helpless and almost makes Danielle physically sick. _What a pathetic display._

She draws her blaster and releases the safety, aiming it at his face. "Explain. Now."

 

* * *

 

"...You've done this before." Danielle can hear the incredulity in her own voice as she says the words. Her hair is loose and in fake, thick curls that brush the back of her neck as she tilts her head in sheer wonder at Sebastian.

He winks at her and then turns back to the floor-length mirror to adjust his fake breasts. "Clients put all sorts of weird requests on their couriers. There's a reason Klaver's keeps me on when I backtalk Jedi and harass beautiful, tiny captains." He looks back over his shoulder to blow her a kiss.

She rolls her eyes at him and picks up the garishly red lipstick, bring it halfway to her face because the other part of his comment registers. "What? When have you ever back-talked a Jedi?" _If he has regular interactions with Jedi, then he is… dangerous._

Danielle must have controlled her tone well-enough because Sebastian doesn’t find the question suspicious. He delays answering by fastening the kilik silk buttons that go from mid-thigh to right under his chin, disguising his adam’s apple and creating a distracting line of lace. He’s still preening in the mirror when he does answer. “It must have been, what? Two weeks ago now? Some self-important, Force-superiority flaunting martial Jedi. I might have been more impressed if he wasn’t injured.

“He hired me on through K’s for some cock-and-bull ‘confidential’ mission.”

Danielle finally realizes she’s still holding the lipstick halfway to her mouth and turns away from him to finish her own disguise for their charade. Changing plans to get rid of Sebastian at this point in the mission would be too suspicious. _This mission will be the last. I can’t afford him talking to Jedi._

He seems oblivious to her distraction, playing the fringe on his blond wig to cover the eyepatch hiding his cybernetics. “Afterwards, he admitted to the charade and said he’s just looking for an impartial courier he could trust.” He shrugs. “I guess the Republic is overstepping their bounds into Jedi business again, but that’s no business of mine. After we nab this star computer back, I’ll be doing a real job for him.”

Danielle tries to feign passing curiosity when she asks, “You do not see anything strange in doing regular jobs for a Darth and then being trusted by a Jedi for special missions?”

Too late, she realizes that she’d used her natural phrasing instead of “Cap’n Dani’s” more casual speech. Sebastian’s frown suggests that the jig may just be up and Danielle feels herself pale underneath the bright rouge on her face.

He leans in close to her and lowers his voice to barely above a whisper. “What I find strange…” Danielle can hear her heart pulse in her ear during his pause. “Is that this overly sexual look just makes you look like a doll rather than a madam. But it is better than them trying to convince you to work for them.”

Danielle masks her relief by slapping her forehead and heaving an exasperated sigh.

“Oh, don’t do that. You’re going to have to redo your whole face at this rate.”

She swats him away and shoos him out of the room so she can finish her own disguise. “Sebastian, if you don’t shut your mouth, I will leave you at the brothel.”

“Yes, Cap’n Dani!”

_I don’t know why some prostitute would steal it in the first place!_

 

* * *

 

"..and she doesn't talk. One of her best qualities, really." Danielle doesn't have to fake her smile as she finishes her description of ‘Sally.' Sebastian had not paused for breath even once between his yapping and flirting during the entire trip to the definitely-a-brothel-you’re-fooling-no-one dance club. Silencing him this way is a pleasure she might not get again soon.

T'lin, the fat 'dance club' owner, rubs one of his pale yellow lekku with a contemplative look on his face. At least, she thought it was contemplative. It was hard to tell when his features were so smoothed by fat. "With those endorsements, one wonders why you would be selling her."

"Everything has a price. And as I said..." Danielle slides a unmarked credit chip across the fat twi'lek's desk. "I'm selling and buying." She tries to flip the thick mass of her curled hair over her shoulder for emphasis, but she doesn’t quite put enough force behind it.

Sebastian snorts in laughter, but turns it into a cough as soon as Danielle stares him down.

The twi’lek grubs up the chip, his thick fingers struggling to pick it up off of the slick desk, and slips it into the pocket of his lasha silk robe without even checking the amount on it. Danielle ignores Sebastian’s silent signals that he’d won their bet over the credit chip.

"Well then, one will see if this Sally impresses one’s girls. One will also show you the girls one is willing to sell." He stands from behind his desk, lekku swinging with the movement. A faux-wood panel slides across the wall behind him and he leans forward for a retinal scan.

A heavy door grinds open and, in Huttese, he barks for his Madam to come and examine the broad-shouldered, bitch. Danielle silently approves of the description. The twi’lek snaps his thick fingers at Sebastian until he sashays towards the Madam.

The door starts sliding shut and Danielle has a moment of insanity, of worry that something might happen, but then Sebastian winks at her and she hopes he gets his fake breasts groped.

"Now, one will show Miss Deeana the merchandise." Danielle doesn't curl her lip in disgust at the man until his back is to her. She smooths out her expression before they get to the first 'display' room. She's assaulted by gaudy velvet and chintz curtains and she prays she finds her astrogation computer soon.

 

* * *

 

T’lin hadn’t been hard to fool, but convincing his Madam that yes, she had walked in with the astrogation computer took a little bit of Force persuasion. Lucky for her, Sebastian had still been keeping the girls busy when she did it. Afterwards, it was just a matter of dragging him back onto her ship.

Sebastian is slap-happy and not just from a job well done. Danielle can smell the alcohol on him and suspects he might have tried one of the prostitute’s spice. She sneers at him before stowing her astrogation computer in the cockpit to install later. When she comes back into the common area, he’s still humming happily to himself, though at least he’s made an attempt to wipe the makeup off of his face.

“You know, Dani, I _like_ that place. Remind me next time I’ve got a client that needs a hooker.” He laughs, a deep-throated chuckle that is just baffling when he’s still in a dress and long blond wig.

_Right. Client._ She gathers a touch of Force into her hand, just enough to knock him out until he sobers up. She bares her teeth and raises her hand, but he doesn’t even notice. He pulls the wig off and ruffles his red hair before straightening his eyepatch.

“You didn’t think so?”

She’s torn between making a biting response and just knocking him out when she notices a stain on his dress. “Why is there lipstick on your collar?”

He laughs and tries to look down at the collar, but the green silk is too form-fitting. His nimble fingers are working at the tiny buttons and Danielle’s mind helpfully shows her just how the lipstick got there and just how busty and attractive the applicator was. She growls, but her mind is seemingly not under her control and it just replays a memory of her doing a similar action to him, just a few weeks ago-

She shouts wordless frustration to take control, only her voice has the Force behind it and knocks Sebastian on his back on the couch.

He doesn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary and infuriatingly just chuckles again before starting to shimmy out of the dress. It drops to the floor and he starts talking, but between his intoxicated rambling and Danielle’s anger, it doesn’t really sink in.

“Disgusting as the T’lin fellow is, and with his whole talk-in-the-third-person schtick, he doesn’t keep any slaves. Even frees the ones he buys! Let’s ‘em choose between working for him and a one-way ticket to anywhere in the sector. Strict age-limit, too. Sure, they could use some gratuitous nether rot checks, but that’s about par for the course…” He trails up and his eye settles on her.

Slowly, his expression turns serious and… considering? It’s an expression she’s never seen from him before and she feels unnerved, as if he’s looking through her, seeing Darth Vallen in her eyes. _What right does he have to look at me that way when he spent the day frollicking and doing Force only knows what else with the prostitutes?_ She returns his stare with a scowl.

“What’s wrong, my beautiful captain?” His voice is soft and combined with his stare, it feels far too intimate.

Danielle stiffens her stance and doesn’t respond.

“You got your computer and the twi’lek’s not exploiting children. What’s the problem?” He starts to take a step towards her, but she stops him with the sharpness of her voice.

“Is _that_ what you were doing? Seeing if he was exploiting children? Or is that just what some whore was whispering in your ear while enjoying the fact that you are actually a man?” Danielle can taste her own anger and the Sith inside her wants to revel in it.

For once, Sebastian doesn’t have a smart quip to turn her accusation flirtatious. Instead he slowly stands and removes the stockings, costume jewellery and the other last remaining pieces of his disguise. He moves into her space until he’s towering over her, strong and intimidating despite being in just his shorts.

“Yes, Captain Dani, as a matter of fact, it was what I was doing.”

She breaks eye contact, unwilling to let him intimidate her after his shenanigans. With his proximity, it leaves her gaze on his bare chest and the map of scars on it that she’d never given a second thought. She clenches her jaw once before snapping back, “Is that so? And just why would you think to look for such a thing?”

His long fingers settle under her chin and force her eyes back to his, but while his touch is strong and sure, it’s far from intimate. “Because when I was ten years old, I was sold to a place like that, except, of course, one that _did_ whore out children to the sick kriffs of the galaxy.”

Sebastian drops her face and makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat before walking back to the spare bunk.

Danielle stands perfectly still, even leaves her chin tilted up. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who Sebastian is anymore. She realizes she doesn’t know anything about him or the scars that mark his entire body.


	4. Heart to Something

When Danielle enters the galley of her ship the next morning, she’s surprised to see Sebastian waiting for her with a steaming cup of caff. She doesn’t say anything, just glides into the room and pours herself a cup. With measured movements, she sits across from him at the small, stainless durasteel table. Still, she stays silent, examining his face. For the first time, she sees the pain etched into his face beneath the more recent smile-lines.

_No. Let him go. It’s better this way. He’s dangerous. Friends with Jedi_. But her thoughts are cut off when he speaks.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. You couldn’t have known, I saw to that years ago.” He places his hand palm-up on the table between them.

“I… apologize for acting so crudely.” _No! This isn’t how Captain Dani talks!_ “I had no right to say such things.” She ignores her better judgement and touches his palm with the tips of her fingers.

Sebastian’s strong fingers curl around hers. He brings her hand to his lips and kisses her knuckles. “You’re the most beautiful creature in the galaxy. You have no right to jealousy only because none could ever compare to you.”

Danielle feels something in her start to react to the gesture, to his words, but then she sees his mouth twist into his usual self-satisfied grin. “...You’re incorrigible.”

“And yet you keep me around.” He releases her hand and she sees his expression turn serious again. “As for the stain… Some of the girls were past their limit on drinks. It’s not everyday something as exciting as us comes to their brothel. I was distracted by the Madam explaining T’lin’s policies when one of them got a little too friendly.”

Danielle lets out a breath and tension she didn’t know she had been holding falls off of her like a wave.

Sebastian must have noticed because he brings one hand to his eyepatch and slowly pulls it off his face. The pain lines on his face are deep and striking and Danielle thinks she sees _shame_ in his expression before he turns his face away. _Why be ashamed of cybernetics..?_ But she can’t bring herself to voice the words.

She touches his hand and he turns to her, for once looking at her with both eyes. “...I lost it escaping that place. I don’t remember much. I guess they left me to die. My next memory is… waking up with this.”

He twines his fingers with her and continues. “I was born into slavery. We all knew what happened to kids bought by _that_ man. I had already lost my mother, my brother… Better to die fighting for my freedom than suffer _that_.”

Danielle says nothing. What could she possibly say to that? Her Empire condoned the practices that almost destroyed his life. Mute, she watches him stand and bring her hand to his mouth again. “Eat, Tiny Captain. I’ll set course for Klaver’s and then you can give Darth Vallen his computer.”

The word _his_ burns in her ears as he leaves. _Now I know the truth of him, but he can never know the truth of me..._

 

* * *

 

Danielle watches him pack his bag when they arrive at Klaver’s. “...You waited until the last moment. Again.”

He laughs in response, but doesn’t look up.

_This is it. Our last goodbye and he will walk out of my ship and into dealings with Jedi. I can’t put my cover in jeopardy._ Her jaw clenches tight when he walks past her to the airlock. She doesn’t mean to speak. “Wait!”

He freezes mid stride and turns slowly towards her, pivoting on his feet instead of picking them up.

Before her good sense can stop her, she walks over and pulls on his jacket collar until his mouth is low enough to kiss. She doesn’t wait for him to make a move, this coupling will be on her terms, for the first and last time.

His bag falls to the floor as his arms wrap around her and picks her up. Danielle takes the opportunity to wrap her legs around him and pulls her mouth away. She’s breathless, but still says, “You can’t leave like this. It’s one of my rules.”

“Yes, Cap’n.”

 

* * *

 

 

Spike. Slash. Spin. Side-step.

Danielle’s breath is heavy under her mask and it fogs in the frozen air around her. Her robes are crusted in churned up snow and mud, but not enough to hinder her movements. She pays it no mind, keeps her attention focused on her opponent.

The Jedi leaps at her and she parries the first strike, then the second before jumping back. He speaks. “Why do you stalk me, Sith?” His voice is bold and clear. It rings in the lightly falling snow.

She taunts him with his name instead of responding. “Why do you resist, Darius Jones?”

“Ilum is critical to preserving peace in the galaxy. I can’t let the Empire take it.” He charges before even finishing the last word and they trade blows, the ends of their sabers leaving scars in the ice around them.

“If your Republic would cede to the Empire, there would be peace.” She extends inside his guard, but only clips the him of his robe with her orange blade.

“Planet stripping is not peace!” He thrusts towards her, green blade sizzling in the freezing air. “Slavery is not peace!”

_‘... I had already lost...’_

In her distraction, Jones scores a mark on her leg. She bares her teeth under her mask, but doesn’t outwardly respond. “Do not judge my people by the loud minority!” She pulls a clock of Force over her to disengage from the fight before her distraction leads to another injury.

For the third time in as many weeks, she stalks unseen away from Darius Jones.

He yells after her into the falling snow. “You draw your power from the pain of others! That’s not peace!”

_You don’t know me, Jedi. No one does._

 

* * *

 

“...Darth Vallen told me you rejected his last two jobs,” Danielle says, peering around the creaking, growling crate at Sebastian.

“Yeah, after I finished that job for the Jedi, my brother had an emergency with his daughter.” He grunts and pushes the lever on the lift to try to move the crate. The contents protest and the crate rocks back and forth on the lift.

“Your brother? But you said…” She trails off, unwilling to accuse him of lying after she’d tried and failed to keep her distance.

“Octavian was stolen from our owner a few days before I was sold. He found me after I started working for K’s.” He grimaces, but Danielle can’t be sure if it’s at the memory or at the crate. “We’re more like friendly acquaintances than brothers now, but I couldn’t let his little girl be tortured.”

“...No, of course not.” Her voice is small when she responds. She did not revel in pain, but the torments of her ‘fellow’ Sith weighed heavily on her. She says nothing else and instead makes cooing noises to the beasts in the crate. The settle down enough for Sebastian to move it properly.

He finishes lowering the crate and hops off the lift. “You okay, Tiny Captain?”

“No, yes... I’m fine. Just, something someone said.” She shakes her head to dispel the memories.

Sebastian drapes an arm around her shoulders and starts steering her aboard her ship. “Don’t worry about the girl, she’s getting the best medical care.” He tightens his arm a little and laughs. “Now, I’m more worried about what’s in store for us. Nothing good ever comes off of Alderaan and the current cargo is already feisty enough.”


	5. Truths Revealed

Danielle feels the bed dip next to her and knows that her post-coital peace and relaxation is at an end. _He shouldn’t be here at all._

“Are you sure Darth Vallen won’t let me complete the delivery with you?” In his new position, Sebastian straightens his eyepatch before brush some of Danielle’s long black hair out of her face. “He keeps requesting me; he must have some level of trust.”

“He’s a Darth; he has no concept of ‘too paranoid.’” She blows on his hand, signalling him to get it out of her face. It does move, but just to start making beelines across her skin. Danielle ignores the gooseflesh it raises and the contented feeling that wants to creep in.

“Paranoid is one thing, but the cargo can’t be _that_ secure if you’re the only one guarding it.” He pauses to squeeze her hand. “I have noticed that your blaster is just for decoration, Dani.”

“It’s secure. I’m the Captain and not as bad of a shot as you seem to think.” It shouldn’t hurt to lie to him. A part of her that she quickly stifled was happy that he paid enough attention to her to realize she never used the blaster, but him knowing that was just another security risk.

“Of course not, Cap’n Dani. I just think it would be terrible if something were to happen to you when you’re all alone with- doing Darth Vallen’s jobs.” He corrects himself quickly, but Danielle catches it, catches the expression that flies across his face when he says it.

She’s about to say something when he continues, “Something like this, perhaps…” And then he’s tickling her sides and behind her knees.

Danielle feels like a stranger in her own body as she giggles and squirms under his hands. _But I also don’t know what Darth Danielle Vallen would do in this situation. It’s never happened. No one has ever wanted to touch me like this before_ … “Stop it, Sebastian, or I’ll send the cabin boy back where he belongs.”

He laughs and it’s a bright, carefree sound. He stops tickling her and instead leans down to give her a single, chaste kiss, his red hair teasing her cheeks.  “I worry about you, Dani. The Treaty will fail, soon. I can feel it.”

_The Force says the same to me…_ She reaches up and caresses his cheek, brushes her fingertips against the bottom ridge of his eyepatch. She turns his face back to her when he tries to hide the cybernetics. “I can look out for myself. I’ll be fine.” Her thumb brushes the corner of his mouth and she tries not to hate herself for her next words. “You can trust me.”

 

* * *

 

“Run.” Danielle grabs Sebastian’s arm and makes an abrupt about face before sprinting back they way they came. _If I was not Captain Dani, I could simply ‘intimidate’ them all. I could hide within the Force until they settled, but instead this man is here, so we must run._

Her blood pounds in her ears and she’s quickly soaked to her hips from the tall, icy grass. The thrill of danger, the ripe sensation of being hunted, pulses in time with her blood and her pace quickens as the Force within her body reacts to the emotions.

“All right, then. A pride of rabid manka cats is officially something Captain Dani can’t handle,” Sebastian quips.

Danielle can only be thankful that he’s keeping pace and not panting from exertion. They cut a sharp line across the Alsakan plains, the cats a short 150 meters behind and closing. Nevertheless, she feels no fear, only excitement. “The report didn’t say anything about them being rabid.”

“Your first mistake was expecting full disclosure from an Alderaanian noble.”

It’s all she can do to keep the joyous laugh to herself, but a tiny human like herself wouldn’t be able to laugh so heartily while running at this pace. The grass fades into weather-smoothed rocks and scraggly trees. She knows what’s ahead. “Prepare yourself, pretty boy. We’re about to get wet.”

“Oh, ‘pretty boy,’ I like-” His voice stops as abruptly as his body when he sees the cliff edge. “I don’t think cliff diving is the-”

Danielle doesn’t wait for him to finish, she just leaps towards the deep water, crashing in feet first. The impact is harder than she expected and jarrs her entire body. Her mouth opens in an involuntary groan of pain and immediately fills with water. She tries to cough, but she’s still submerged. She calms herself with the Force and then swims until she breaks the surface with a cry.

Her body is numb from the pain and freezing water as she coughs to clear her lungs. She hears no splashing except for her own arms keeping her afloat and a wave of panic crashes into her. “Sebastian? Where are you?” The water is undisturbed other than her own splashing and the cliff ridge is empty. “Sebastian!”

“Dani, I do have a stealth generator,” Sebastian says, his voice reaching her before she sees him. Then he winks into view, climbing down the side of the cliff. Nimble as a jungle cat, he makes his way down to the rocks where he holds down his hands to help her out of the water. “That was reckless.”

“They would have smelled us through the generator’s field.”

He grunts with effort as he pulls her out. “It gave me enough time to get down without jumping; it would have been plenty enough for you, too. I’ve seen you move.”

“I think I can asses the situation a little better than-” She cries out in pain when she tries to put her weight on her own legs.

Sebastian tightens his grip before she can fall and gently helps her sit down on the rocks. Water crashes nearby, sending a light spray over them. He shakes his head. “You’re the injured one; I think that determines who saw it right.” He turns away from her face and removes his eyepatch.

Danielle watches as first a red, then a green light flickers over her legs. She sees his shoulders bunch up in tension and revulsion as he uses his cybernetic eye to inspect her. At length, he grunts before replacing his eyepatch.

“Your right leg is fractured. It’s a bad angle; if you try to walk, you’ll just break it. The left ankle is sprained, but a koltopatch will be enough for that when we get back to the ship.” He scoops her up into his arms and stands before she can protest. “Insist you’re the captain all you want, I am going to carry you back no matter what you want, so you may as well save your breath.”

_If you hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have been injured in the first place,_ but she keeps the thought unspoken. From his arms, she can easily see up into his face and watch as his mouth twists between amusement and concern.

“I have quite enough breath to spare!” She says before launching into a joking rant about how he should listen to her more.

 

* * *

 

When they dock at K’s after finishing the madness on Alderaan and getting Danielle’s legs patched up, Sebastian lingers more than usual on her ship. They’ve already had their typical, intimate goodbye, but there he remains, loitering in the common area.

She doesn’t want to kick him off her ship, but the change in routine unsettles her. She gives up on trying to figure him out when he starts pacing. Danielle makes herself comfortable on the couch and watches him walk back and forth in front of her, his hands alternatingly clenching and adjusting his eyepatch.

“Dani, you… Trust me.”

“Yes.” It’s only half a lie. She trusts him to tell her the truth, just not herself to do the same.

“You looked me up. You weren’t surprised when you saw the eye.” He gestures to his face sharply and his strides land more heavily on the floor. “You know… that I care for you.” He pauses for a moment, but then keeps pacing. “The thing is, it’s more than that. I’m in love with you and I can’t… Live with the lie anymore.” He stops and his single, blue eye stares at her like he can see through her.

_And he can, can’t he? He knows and that’s why he’s troubled. Why he’s pacing. He’s willing to accept a Sith as his lover, but up to a point and that was my keeping it secret. Something in her chest clenches. Why now? Is it because I wanted to end this? Am I getting my wish?_ Danielle feels cold and claps her hands together to rub some warmth into them. She doesn’t know what to say.

"I'm not just some freelance, hired delivery boy, Dani. I'm a Force-user, as trained as any Sith Lord or Jedi Knight. I know that you're bound to the Empire, though you try to hide it. If anyone in the Empire found out about me, about us, you'd be in danger for _harboring_ me, even if you didn't know. With you, I am building towards something in my life; I’m not just a slave that gets paid anymore. After so many years of-

Captain Dani doesn’t know what to say, so Darth Danielle Vallen says what she should have months ago, "Get out."

"Dani-"

"Out!"

Danielle sees the pain lines, the ones that were in such sharp relief the night he revealed his past. The marr his face more than his fake eye ever could. She wants to call him back, to confess all of the secrets she’s been keeping, but she can’t. She’s safe. It’s the perfect cover.

He leaves and as the airlock hisses closed behind him, Danielle brings a cold hand to her face only to find her cheeks covered in tears.

“Don’t go…”

 

 


	6. The Other Side

"Ah, Sebast’n."

Sebastian turns and raises an eyebrow at Klaver. The old man’s skin is leathery and stretched around his horns. Sebastian shifts the heavy bag on his shoulder. "You need something, Boss?"

Klaver holds out a datapad. "Hanger D-17, Sebast’n."

He takes the datapad and frowns as he scrolls through the mission details.  "I can't take this. I’m on vacation. You sent me on vacation since I lost the Vallen contract. Send Mik. He could use the commission." He holds the datapad out to his Zabrak boss.

Klavers crosses his arms over his chest. "Mik is takin' the contract for Vallen. This man asked for you special."

"...I’m on leave. You deactivated my credentials." His frown deepens and he looks between his boss and the datapad before rubbing the tight skin under his eyepatch.

"Look, I know yer upset about the Darth’s lil’ cap’n, but this is a Rep Senator and he's payin' three times the rate to get you showin' up."

"Three times?!" Sebastian pulls the datapad back and looks it over again. _I do need a vacation, but this could finance a long term getaway to a nice, quiet agricultural planet._ "This is just some personal delivery, Republic port to Coruscant. Come on, K, this is suspicious. We don’t need money so bad we’re taking scammers on now.”

"The aide tha’ made the contract was gonna pay tha’ just for you to show up, but I told ‘im we don't whore out our boys." K rubs the bald skin between his horns and waves down the hallway to the hangers. "Get yourself gone, Sebast’n, before this contract poofs out."

"I'd better not be going to my death, Klaver. You said I was going on vacation; I didn’t think you meant the permanent kind.”

"You're too useful for that, Sebast’n. If I thought you were in danger, I'd've told 'im no. Dun worry ‘bout the cred’shals, I got it."

"...I hope you're right."

 

* * *

 

"Drink?"

Sebastian waves Senator Callum off. "My lady made me quit." The words are out of his mouth before it even registers that Dani isn’t his anything anymore.  With a heavy sigh, he takes the offered seat on the other side of the senator’s carved faux-wood desk. "What's this all about, Senator?"

"Are you sure you don't want a drink?" The senator finishes his own clear crystal glass of brandy and pours himself a second. He’s a human with greying red hair and weary, tired eyes. Sebastian would have pegged him at least ten years older than his claimed 48. "I think you'll need one, but..." He takes a sip of the new glass and then rubs his face with one hand. Without another word, Senator Callum passes Sebastian a datapad.

He raises and eyebrow and takes the datapad. It’s fancier than he’s used to, but still easy as pie to scroll through the information. "This is my medical information." He looks up. “Are you investigating my upgrades?” _Stupid, cursed thing has always been more trouble than good._

The senator isn’t even looking at him. His big, worn hands are holding a digital frame. “Keep reading.”

He gets to the next entry, which just has the senator's information. "I'm not sure what this is about, then. All of this is public and, frankly, I don’t give two kriffs about Republic senators."

“Look, Sebastian, my wife just gave birth to our first child. My in-laws were ecstatic in between performing all kinds of tests to see if she was healthy.”

_That’s great, old man. I really don’t care._

“One of their aides ended up doing a comparative biosignature analysis. It was an accident, but it actually turned up results. Your results. You’re her half-brother. Through me.”

Sebastian watches him set down the picture frame and the faces in the picture are a blonde Miralukan woman and a red-haired infant. Time seems to stop while Sebastian processes this. Vaguely, he hears the senator pouring himself another drink, but it just-

There’s a shattering crash and when Sebastian looks up he sees that he’s thrown the senator’s crystal decanter and glass set at the wall. “You raped my mother!” He’s on his feet and the Force crackles and snaps in the air around him. “We were slaves! We were tortured!” The desk and picture frame start shaking with his anger. “My mother was _killed_ , my brother, _also your son_ , was destroyed by the Sith! I was _sold to a brothel_!”

Sebastian realizes the datapad, picture frame and everything not nailed down is floating in the air around him. “And you, you think you can just come into one of the lives you destroyed and what? Brag about your daughter?”

Senator Callum has his face hidden in his hands and his posture is tight with shame. “I didn’t know she a slave. That she couldn’t say no. I didn’t know you even existed until two weeks ago.”

“But you remember her. Out of all of your depravity, you remember the woman you ruined!”

“No! I was a stupid kid! I loved her. I was going to take her to An’ara!”

“Don’t you dare speak of our homeworld!”

“When I went back to the estate, everything was gone. It was in ruins. I thought she’d died then.”

“An easy excuse to clear your conscience!” Sebastian points at the senator, at his father, and the floating objects stop their aimless movements and arrange themselves in sharp motions around his hand.

The senator pleads with tears in his eyes, “What do you want? I would do anything to bring her back. Anything to make it right.”

Sebastian waves his hand and the picture frame flies across the room before shattering against the window with a crash of broken glass and electronics. The rest of the objects fall to the floor in unison with loud thumps. “Filth like you doesn’t deserve a legacy. A daughter. Your line ends with you.”

The senator lunges towards the tiny shards of the frame when Sebastian says the words. “No, anything, but that, you can’t hurt her. Please, she’s innocent.”

“And she’ll stay that way. Forever. Her mother is miralukan. There’s Force in her blood. Give her to the Jedi and never see her again.”

Sebastian ignores the senator’s choked sobs. His voice is cold, dead. The shock of losing his love, coupled with meeting the man that brought all of this on him… “You’ll never face adequate punishment for what you’ve done. At least this way, she can bring good to the galaxy to balance your abhorrent actions.”

He slams the door behind him when he leaves and impotent, fruitless tears fall from his eyes.

 

 


	7. Hardly Working

“Business has been slow, I take it.”

“Aucht.” Danielle says his name like a curse. Maybe it is, one could never tell with Sith. She taps her gloved fingers on the heavy desk in her Dromund Kaas office. The metal fingertips clack loudly against the thick varnish coating the faux wood.

“My dear Darth Vallen, you haven’t left Dromund Kaas in weeks. My business still needs handling, now that you’re more likely to be agreeable. I am a mite surprised I didn’t have to dry the well up myself.”

_Arrogant sod._ “...You do quite enjoy the sound of your own voice, don’t you?” Danielle turns away from the masked visitor and pursues Klaver’s business data on the closest of  her computer screens. _Hopefully, he’ll leave if I don’t play his game._

“Mid-rim planet: heavily forested, crawling with beasts. It protects my manor, but my wife would rather things stop scratching in the night.” He pauses. “Are you _listening_?”

She still doesn’t turn to him; instead, she opens up her own Republic file on ‘Captain Dani.’ As a joke, Sebastian had added himself as her husband and emergency contact. It stings to see. “You’d do your best to watch your tongue if you would like to keep it in your mouth.”

Lord Aucht draws his saber and ignites it, leaning over her desk with the blade filling the space between them. Danielle can feel the Force swirl in the air around him, but doesn’t react. “This planet is my home. If you’re too distracted by your own pursuits to do the job, I will find another.” He removes his mask to stare her down. “And do not think your rank prevents repercussions for your comments.”

Danielle is speechless, but not from intimidation. No, Lord Aucht’s stare silences her by sole virtue of being identical to Sebastian’s. The strong nose, sharp cheekbones, red hair and perfect blue eye. For a paralyzing moment, she thinks it truly is him staring down at her, but then her brain registers that he has _two_ perfect blue eyes.

“Well?”

“...Leave behind the details and your pompous attitude and I will consider it.”

“Rank is not the only measure of power, Darth Vallen.” He replaces his mask and sweeps out of her office, robe billowing behind him.

Her jaw clenches at the lord’s impertinence, but she considers the job. There is no way this Sith isn’t connected to Sebastian. She wants answers, but she can’t risk herself by finding him again. But this Sith… “Lord Aucht…”

 

* * *

 

“My Lord..?”

“ _What_?” Danielle snaps her head around to address her apprentice.

Rizana cowers in the doorway, black robe fluttering as she trembles. “The Jedi Master Jones has been taken captive by Lord Stillar. I know you didn’t tell me to-”

“Where is he being held?” Danielle’s aura expands and chokes the air in her office. She lifts a hand to still the rattling windows while she waits on a response.

Rizana stutters and stumbles and doesn’t get a single coherent word out.

“Talk now, grovel later.”

“Hoth, my lord! I sent you a message with the exact coordinates, I-”

“Get back to your work.” Danielle rises from her desk and stalks past her apprentice, barely brushing the girl, though Rizana collapses in a heap on the floor. _Pathetic_.

 

* * *

 

“Out.” Danielle’s voice echos in the dead silence that pervaded the lab when she threw the half-frozen, durasteel door open. Stillar’s apprentices stare at her with eyes wide and panic etched into their pale faces. “ _Out_!” She puts Force compulsion behind the word the second time.

She doesn’t need to say it a third as the cowering apprentices skitter out of the lab in a flurry of terrified, flailing arms and muted shrieks. Danielle stalks past them into the lab, steps even and firm until she reaches the tilted torture table in the back. She breathes heavily, wisps escaping the seal around her mask and fogging in the air.

The Jedi Jones is strapped down with needles inserted evenly across his skin. Underneath her mask, Danielle’s lip curls and she leans closer to examine the spider web of tubes connecting  to the needles. She’s no chemist, but Stillar has a reputation for injected, liquid torture, so it is easy to guess the truth of the situation.

Danielle isn’t about to let some Lord have a free pass at _her_ Jedi. With a wave of her hand, she tears the doors off of all of the cupboards in the lab. In between checking the bottles, she glances at Darius Jones over her shoulder, thankful that he’s still unconscious. However, as her fingers close over a heavy flask of kolto, the screaming starts.

Darius’s eyes are milky and vacant and his mouth doesn’t move as a blood-curdling scream leaves his body. Danielle clenches her jaw and turns back to the cupboards, searching haphazardly for a sedative. In her haste, she knocks over a sickly blue vial that shatters on contact with the frozen ground. If not for the Force, she wouldn’t hear the acid sizzling over the Jedi’s scream.

_I’m no medic…_ She banishes the thought and begins unhooking the rainbow of chemicals flooding the Jedi’s system. Once she finishes disconnecting the tubes and letting them drain their noxious fluids onto the floor of the lab, Danielle jabs Jedi Jones in the neck with the kolto. He doesn’t react immediately, but she notices a gradual loss of tension in his body before his screaming finally quiets.

She takes a deep breath and begins removing the needles, skirting around the few that are burned into the skin from Force lightning. “You had best appreciate this, Jedi.”

“Sith..?”

Danielle wraps her gloved fingers around the first burned, skin-fused needle and stares into the Jedi’s eyes through her mask. “I am Darth Danielle Vallen and you belong to me.”

She rips it out.

 

* * *

 

With eyes unfocused on the distance, Danielle strokes the crest on the head of one of her veractyls. Its mewls and cries don’t drown out the memory of the Jedi’s screams from when she’d freed him, but it distracts her somewhat.

Enough for her thoughts to drift back Sebastian with his Sith copy. _Arrogance is certainly shared between Sebastian and this Aucht…_

At that thought, her eyes focus and she looks down at the creature under her hand. It coos questioningly. “Aucht. Aucht, why is the name-”

_“My brother had an emergency with his daughter.”_

_“Octavian was stolen from our owner a few days before I was sold.”_

“Of course.” Danielle laughs, though there’s no humor in the sound. “His brother! Aucht, Octavian. More the fool, I am. And with this daughter to protect, of course he continues to harass me to do his work.”

She shakes her head and the veractyl nips at her ponytail as it sways with the movement. “The question now is whether or not he can tell me anything about Sebastian…”

 

 


	8. Tables

“When did you start playing with Sith?”

Sebastian waves his arm, but it’s a futile motion. Octavian’s face doesn’t disappear from his dream, instead the sprawling fields of Uphrades fade into a world of solid orange. He tries to summon the Force to dispel the vision, but he’s powerless in his sleep. “Get out of my head, Octavian.”

“Normally, I’d give in to my baby brother’s wishes, but the bonds of brotherhood don’t mean much when one spills another’s secrets to a Darth!” Octavian’s anger summons blood-red clouds in the endless orange.

“Pick up your Sith paranoia and get out of my head.” He turns his back on his brother, but it does no good in this dream world. No matter how much or how fast he turns, Octavian is always in front of him.

“Darth Vallen threatened to cut out my tongue.”

Sebastian freezes and the ground rolls and morphs beneath his feet until he’s sunk to his ankles, unable to move. “Coincidence. I didn’t say anything about your daughter’s tongue.” He reaches for the Force again. “And I never met Vallen, so he couldn’t have taken it from my mind.”

“Are you really so oblivious?” Octavian’s eyebrows are high with incredulity. He can feel Sebastian’s confusion directly from his mind. He laughs and the clouds disappear. “Can we truly be twins when you’re so blind?”

Sebastian’s hand goes to his eyepatch and he bares his teeth at his brother.

“Come now, Vallen’s name is not so secret you couldn’t have found it on your own.”

“Say what you want; I didn’t betray you.”

“Danielle Vallen, Sebastian. She is one Darth that knows our face well.”

The orange horizon shatters as the revelation puts Sebastian back in control. He falls to his knees in one of Uphrades’ tilled fields of wheat. The sun is high in the sky, but instead of the comfortable warmth he usually feels, the light is searing on his back. He holds both hands in front of his face.

“It can’t be true.” He looks up into his twin’s solemn face. “I love her. I would have known.”

“Clearly not.”

“How did this happen to us?”

“The Force is punishing you for putting my daughter in danger.”

“You put her in danger by conceiving her with that witch! I trust Dani with more than my life, she wouldn’t hurt Cassandra.” He curls into himself, pressing his forehead into the moist soil, betrayal beating strong in his veins.

“Pray your trust will save you. You endangered my family, so now I endanger you. You know Vallen’s secrets, now. Hope they weigh less than your life.”

When Sebastian looks up again, his brother is gone. Without Octavian’s outside control, his dream spins into chaos from his roiling emotions.

 

* * *

 

"...Klaver’s is going to fire you if you keep refusing my jobs." Dani’s voice is detached, cold. She looms over him in the small, Tatooine cantina, but her short stature and Sebastian’s complete apathy diminish the effect. Her jacket and trousers are sand-stained and worn.

Sebastian takes a drink. “I’m refusing Darth Vallen’s jobs. I was under the impression there was a difference.” He tilts his head and looks up with his one good eye. “If you’re going to kill me, you should just get it over with. No one is going to seek revenge.”

She yanks a second chair out from the table and sits heavily. “You’re being ridiculous.”

He touches the bottom of his eyepatch before taking another drink. “I’m refusing jobs from someone who lied to me about every aspect of her life. Why should I risk my life for lies?”

“You said you trusted me.”

“I did. In the past.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about Octavian?”

“The same reason everything you told me was a lie.” He sets down his drink and stands up, stretching before throwing a few credit chips on the table. He looks down at her and says only, “Sith paranoia.”

 

* * *

 

"Were you lying?"

Sebastian sighs. He doesn’t turn towards his open office door, just presses his forehead into the cool metal of his desk. “It’s been months. Please, just leave me alone, Darth Vallen.”

“If you spoke the truth when you said you loved me, months wouldn’t matter!”

He stands then. Turns to her and puts his hands on her shoulders. His voice is quiet, but insistent. “I’m in love with a lie. A wonderful, clever woman that doesn’t exist except to get easy passage into Republic space. When we played at being married for that job on Corellia, I planned to make it a reality one day.

“I don’t know what you want from me. You rejected my affection before I even knew I was in love with a lie. Whatever you’re looking for, find it somewhere else. Your pursuit is agonizing. You know I won’t reveal you and I know you won’t kill me for my knowledge, so why do you have to keep torturing me like this?”

“I want you. I have wanted you, Sebastian.”

“Not enough to tell me the truth. Not enough to trust me to keep your secrets.”

“It’s different now.” She leans towards him, her shoulders fighting against his hands.

He relents enough to let her come close. He wraps his arms around her, squeezes his eye shut as it leaks a single tear. “This time, it’s not enough for me, Dani.” He tilts his head against hers. “I wish it was. I miss you.”

Her hands clench in the fabric of his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers into her hair before knocking her out with a jolt of Force. In a daze, he carries her back to her ship and sets the autopilot back to Imperial space.

“Goodbye.”

 

 


	9. It was a Joke

Muted beeps and clicks seep into Danielle’s mind. She pushes them away, tries to sink back into sleep, but the noise is persistent and she opens her eyes. The room is unfamiliar: worn, plain durasteel walls and shelves haphazardly covered in datapads, holonovels and bits of fabric. Her muscles tense, preparing to go into a defensive posture, but the searing pain stops her and she lets out an involuntary groan.

Sebastian’s head pops into view then and she realizes that he’s holding her hand. He leans over her, worry lines deep on his face. “Dani…” He squeezes her hand and reaches out to touch her cheek. A tear falls from his good eye. “I was so worried.”

“Seb…” Her mouth is too dry and her throat too painful to finish his name.

He releases her hand and slowly leans over her before slipping his arms behind her back to pull her into a gentle hug. “So worried.”

She doesn’t know how she ended up in this place with him. She has no memories involving him since he knocked her unconscious in his office weeks ago. Danielle feels something twist in her chest when he pulls away. The eyepatch is skewed to the point where she can clearly see his cybernetic eye and he doesn’t even notice. She lifts her hand to fix it herself, but as soon as she begins the motion she knows she’s not strong enough to finish it.

Sebastian snatches her hand out of the air and brings it to his mouth, kisses her knuckles. The Force tells her that his eye is full of the same pained trust and bottomless affection he had when he confessed his love eighteen months prior. Or maybe it’s her heart.

He breaks eye contact and whistles toward the door. A moment later, a rusty protocol droid appears in the doorway with a tray. Carefully, he takes the tray and extends the legs so it rests over her lap. “The healers sent some medication…” He nudges a tiny cup of pills towards her. “I didn’t want to just give them to you. I didn’t know if… they’d have any negative effects with your…”

 _With my Sith-ness_ , she finishes for him. Danielle tries to push herself into a sitting position, but the weakness crashes over her like a bucket of water.

Sebastian leans in, pulls her up and settles a few pillows to support her back. “You need some water. And food. You’ve been unconscious for 48 hours. They- I- didn’t have your _real_ medical information, just ‘Captain Dani’s,’ so I was afraid to give you anything.”

“Anything is… fine.” With deliberate motions, Danielle picks up the cup of pills and the glass of water. She lets out a shuddering breath before washing the pills down with a sip of water.

“There’s broth, or some bread. It’s not the freshest, but it’s from Alderaan. I know you-”

“I’m not hungry.” Danielle closes her eyes and relaxes into the pillows. “What happened to me?”

He takes her hand again and holds it in both of his. “I’m not sure. You were found in Republic space, badly injured. It was obvious that the wounds were of Sith origin, so they took you directly to Coruscant for healing. You know Dani’s records said I was… So they called me.”

Again, Danielle’s mind fills in where his words leave out. _Dani’s records said you, Sebastian, were her husband._

“As soon as you were stable, I had them load you into my ship and got back into neutral space. I couldn’t risk anyone recognizing you as Sith.” His hands shake even as they hold hers. Sebastian lowers his gaze and squeezes her hand between his.

Danielle turns away from him, as well, and it lets in a rush of memory. A slippery lord, looking for an ‘easy’ Darth title by attacking one so young. She killed him. Destroyed his lightsaber, but he must have… She shakes her head and the movement makes her dizzy. She looks at him again, limp red hair, sagging posture, hands white with their grip on hers.

“Thank you… Sebastian.”

“Anything for you, Dani.” He relaxes his grip a little and releases one hand entirely to fix his eyepatch.

After he does so, Danielle loses control of herself and tugs on his hand. “...Sebastian.” When he leans towards her, she tilts her head until their lips brush. Emotion overwhelms her and the tears on her cheeks are Sebastian’s, not hers, because she doesn’t need this. She has control.

For his part, Sebastian takes the touch as an invitation to climb into bed with her. With ease, he lifts her clear off the bed and replaces her on top of him. His arms hold in her place with the slightest pressure and he starts rambling as they both cry. “I love you, Dani. I tried to forget. It hurt so much that you lied and then didn’t even care about my feelings, but I just- You- I’m so glad you’re all right. I can’t imagine my life without you.”

Danielle doesn’t respond. Sebastian loves the sound of his own voice, after all. That’s her excuse when she falls asleep with her head resting on his chest, his rambling affection falling over her like mist.

 

* * *

 

"...You're not serious."

"I'm completely serious."

"You can't live on my ship."

"It’s nicer than my ship." His tone is casual and he gives her a lazy look from where he's sprawled on her couch.

Danielle sighs and barely resists the urge to put her hands on her hips. "And how do you expect to work from my ship?"

"I can work for you." He winks at her.

She half-heartedly slaps his face, but he just catches her wrist and kisses her palm.

"You're stuck with me now, Dani."

"...That does seem to be the case."

"I love you."

"I know."

"We should get married. For real this time."

"...Don't push it."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second story is this series, Lessons, will be posted later this week!


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